What's The Rule?

[jimpiano]

Miami at Florida-Saturday

Airborne reciever catches the ball and lands out of bounds and the ball comes loose. Ruled incomplete.

Video review reverses call, saying the reciever's elbow touched in bounds while he had possession.

The possession lasted only until the rest of his body hit the ground.

What's the rule?

[Bob M.]

REPLY: I didn't see the play, so I can only go by what you describe. If that's the way it happened, it seems to be in conflict with an NCAA principle that the reception must 'survive' the receiver's contact with the ground. If that contact causes the ball to come loose, NCAA wants it ruled an incomplete pass.

[Camron Rust]

I did see the game but am no football official. I can only describe what occurred....

Receiver catches the ball in air and lands. The official on the field rules incomplete for landing OOB. The replay official apparently reviews what touched where (elbow touched down inbounds before any other body part touched) and ruled that it was caught inbounds.

I'm not sure if they reviewed catch/no-catch. The video angle was not 100% conclusive on that point.....the ball did come out but I can't say when it came out...and I don't know the finer details of how to decide that point.

[TXMike]

The IR ruling is in compliance with the rule but not in compliance with the Approved Rulings. Many officials have believed the AR's on this (which were put in within the past few years) are inconsistent with the rules and have chosen to ignore. Perhaps that is what the IR official thought.

[mbyron]

I saw the play and was surprised that the call was overturned. I had thought that the ruling for incomplete was due to possession not surviving the receiver hitting the ground.